Between Immortal and Human Beings: The Shaping and Changing of the Image of Taoyuan in the Jin and Tang Dynasties(PDF)
《南京师大学报》（社会科学版）[ISSN:1006-6977/CN:61-1281/TN]
- Issue:
- 2022年01期
- Page:
- 122-132
- Research Field:
- Publishing date:
Info
- Title:
- Between Immortal and Human Beings: The Shaping and Changing of the Image of Taoyuan in the Jin and Tang Dynasties
- Author(s):
- WU Xiaping
- Keywords:
- Taoyuan; Wuling; literary geography; historical geography; geographical criticism
- PACS:
- -
- DOI:
- -
- Abstract:
- Belonging to the literary category of zazhuan杂传(miscellaneous legends), Tao Yuanming’s Taohua Yuan Ji桃花源记(Peach Blossom Spring)was the basis for the generation of the image of Taoyuan桃源(peach blossom spring)in later generations. At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, Taoyuan was mainly taken as a place of secluded beauty and a place of retreat. Wang Wei’s Taoyuan Xing桃源行(A Journey to Peach Blossom Spring)was the first poem which made Taoyuan as part of its title, and later Liu Yuxi, Han Yu and others also created works on this topic. The narratives of these poems were slightly different, but on the whole they all centered on the life and stories of immortals. During the Dali Reign(766-779), the child Taoist monk at the Taoist temple named Taohua Guan(Peach Blossom Taoist Temple)in Wuling rose to immortality in broad daylight, and then the fairy tales in the poem merged with the Taoist stories to form a genre of Taoyuan stories of immortals. Wuling Ji武陵记(Records of Wuling)and Wuling Tujing武陵图经(Map Guides of Wuling)as topographical records describe Taoyuan more objectively and rationally, but they also have different characteristics. The pictorial Taoyuan maps are imagery expressions of Taoyuan, and to be exact are the imagery reproduction of the texts of the poems, so they are mainly based on the stories of immortals. From the examples of Liu Yuxi and Han Yu, we can see that although there are differences between the Taoyuans in literary geography and those in historical geography, they are often unified in the mind of the poets. Based on this, it is possible to dig deeper into the significance of doing geographical criticism of Taoyuan in terms of the space and sphere created by the different types of works, and to deeply understand the complex relationship between literature and history.
Last Update: 1900-01-01